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Shipwreck · Salvaged

The Tek Sing, the Titanic of the East

Sank 1822 · found 1999, Gaspar Strait, between Bangka & Belitung, Indonesia
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Tek Sing, the Titanic of the East: still unexplained.

~350,000 pieces of porcelain, the largest sunken cache of Chinese ceramics raised

The law of this ground: Salvaged commercially in 1999; much of the cargo sold at auction.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
~350,000 pieces of porcelain, the largest sunken cache of Chinese ceramics raised
The account

Overloaded with porcelain and sixteen hundred emigrants, the junk Tek Sing took a captain's shortcut through the Gaspar Strait and struck a reef in the night. Around fifteen hundred souls drowned, a toll that earned her the name 'Titanic of the East.' When Michael Hatcher found her in 1999, his crew raised some 350,000 pieces of cargo, the greatest haul of Chinese porcelain ever lifted from the sea.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • A Chinese junk that sank in the South China Sea in 1822 with some 1,600 aboard, the Tek Sing was found in 1999 by Michael Hatcher carrying about 350,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain.
  • The cargo was raised and auctioned in 2000, the largest sale of sunken porcelain ever; the wreck site is documented.
  • The lead for the region is the many other Qing-era junks lost on the same trade routes through the Gaspar Strait.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • A Chinese junk that sank in the South China Sea in 1822 with some 1,600 aboard, the Tek Sing was found in 1999 by Michael Hatcher carrying about 350,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain.
  • The cargo was raised and auctioned in 2000, the largest sale of sunken porcelain ever; the wreck site is documented.
  • The lead for the region is the many other Qing-era junks lost on the same trade routes through the Gaspar Strait.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
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Latest Word From the Newswire

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Checking the wire…

Chart position -2.550°, 107.000° (approx.) View on the Map